


Infinity Moment

by tomurau



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Drowning, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 16:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1906500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomurau/pseuds/tomurau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He thinks to himself that there's no reason anymore to live, not when he's dying anyway and the emptiness inside grows by the hour.</p><p>Minato, drowning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Infinity Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place between the final battle and graduation.

He's still not entirely certain of who he is, but so long as he doesn't think too carefully about it he can ignore the blazing emptiness inside, the burn charring his organs into thick, heavy ash, turning his chest into a hollow.

It's a Sunday. No school.

He buys takoyaki from a vendor, behind a younger boy with grey hair who pays in 100-yen coins while Minato fingers the bills in his pocket, gained from what seems a lifetime away and just as well may have been.

His stomach won't accept it, but he forces it down anyway, out of a feeling of necessity, he guesses, though it could just be an unwillingness to waste.

He sits on a bench in the park and tries not to think about old friends, gone, while he waits for the sky to fade. He fails.

At night, he walks to a quiet place, facing water. He's reminded of something that he needs to do, but he brushes it away. He can regret later.

It's how he's always lived, really, not letting himself think too far, holding his thoughts in like poker cards dealt out for a game of go fish, but refusing to show them even at the end.

The water is beautiful, inviting. It seems comfortable, silent, hiding away that which wants to be hidden, turning bruised bones to soft sand.

He doesn't dare touch it, doesn't even move. He's always been one to wait for the others' say on whether it's too hot or cold. He's the follower, not the leader.

Now won't be the first time he's changed that habit.

The moon is missing, new in more senses than one. He stands at the barrier between land and sea, black and white, life and death.

He doesn't jump, nor does he dive. Instead, he falls, curling around himself as he never did in sleep.

The water swallows him whole. It's very different from how he felt in the sea of his soul, where he was sure and in charge and which is now very very empty.

He feels as though he's floating, yet also sinking. He opens his mouth, exhales for the last time. He can feel the air escape and his fingers twitch, arms and legs jerk before he relaxes again, lets himself go, and inhales.

He instantly feels like coughing up this liquid that is rushing into his lungs, but instead he welcomes it, savors the taste religiously, like everything else in this moment.

The hole within is filling.

He is drifting in limbo, facing the sky. He opens his eyes and they burn, but he is growing numb already, has been for weeks now he realizes and laughs, but it comes out as a hysterical gurgle.

It's almost as though he's drowning.

His eyes are open and he thinks he can see the moon, but no, silly, that's heaven and are you an idiot, that's Nyx!

Doesn't matter, he thinks to himself sleepily. They've all forgotten, should see him as little more than a companion. They won't care when he's gone, hell, he's been going already.

He realizes that he's been breathing water as though it's natural for a while now and he can't have much longer.

For a second he sees Messiah and then maybe he's crying, but he can't tell because by now he's too far gone and tears are just water anyway and he smiles because he's finally done, his journey is finally over.

\---

By the time they remember, he's gone, and they assume that he disappeared in the way of the Dark Hour and Tartarus, never to be seen again.

They grieve and then return to their daily work, convinced that he's in a better place now.

The body is found soon enough. Mitsuru goes to identify it and when she comes back she doesn't talk, just retreats into herself and cries into her pillow at night.

Over time, they each learn the vague details, just enough to give a glimpse, but never more.

"High likelihood of suicide"..."Classmates say he was acting depressed"..."Many prior injuries, some still unhealed, others very old"..."Organs seemed to be failing prior to death"..."Let us hope he died smiling."


End file.
